Olivia De Couvreur was a full-fledged soccer player with a decade’s worth of experience, when she tuned into the 2016 Summer Olympic Games on TV.

The moment she saw women’s rugby sevens, which was making its Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, her teenage life veered in a new direction.

De Couvreur’s imagination took her from being restricted only to kicking or heading a round soccer ball to being able to touch, pass and carry an oblong, rugby ball up field powered by her speed and tenacity. She couldn’t wait to enter the intense, controlled chaos of those 14-minute games.

“When I watched rugby sevens (at the 2016 Olympics,) my heart rate was racing. It was so intense and precise. There was contact and passing. I know for sure it was something I wanted to do,” said De Couvreur, who had played soccer for the Gloucester Hornets, and track and field at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School.

But there was an issue. Her parents stepped forward with their concerns.

“We were very reluctant,” said father Pascal, who was coincidently interviewed on the first anniversary of Rowan’s Law Day in Ontario. “Knowing it’s a contact sport and injuries we likely to happen, I was concerned for her.”

Rowan’s Law was designed to educate athletes, teacher/coaches, and parent/guardians about the dangers of head injuries, after Ottawa high school rugby player Rowan Stringer died following two on-field concussions in 2013.

But after De Couvreur, 18, talked to her parents, she attended her school fall 2016 tryouts. It was a critical step as she moved through the sport with lightning speed and determination, which paralleled her on-field performance.

Two years later, she’s representing Canada and winning a bronze medal at the third Summer Youth Olympic Games, which are in Buenos Aires, Argentina, until Thursday. De Couvreur started every game for Canada, which went 3-2 in the preliminary round and rallied with 12 unanswered points in the final three minutes Monday to defeat Colombia 24-19 in the bronze-medal game.

De Couvreur, who is a prop, scored one try in each of the first two games.

More than 200 countries are represented in 32 sports with 3,998 athletes between the ages of 15 and 18 (equally divided between male and female). The Canadian team also includes field hockey player Isaac Farion of Chelsea and the Chelsea Field Hockey Club and Ottawa’s Catherine Carkner in sport climbing.

Farion, a forward and backup goalkeeper, combined for one goal off five shots as defending bronze medallist Canada won only one of five round-robin games and lost its playoff game 2-1 to Mexico to finish 10th. Carkner placed 16th in bouldering wall, 18th in speed wall and 19th in lead wall in the qualification round and didn’t advance to any final.

Field hockey player Joshua Kuempel of Arnprior and the Nepean Nighthawks also was named to the team, but missed the Games because of injury.

De Couvreur was made for rugby sevens, as her gritty high school play immediately caught the attention of the Eastern regional coach and then the Ontario team program. Today, she’s a federally carded athlete on the national development team and is part of the centralized senior women’s group in Langford, B.C.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier coach Ryan Hatfield knew he had a gifted player when he saw De Couvreur’s explosive speed, great hands and confident tackling ability in 2016.

“In league play, she was very good, scoring many tries on the day, which caught the eye of the community coaches,” Hatfield wrote in an e-mail. “It is pretty crazy how fast the whole rugby life unfolded for Olivia.”

Her parents now fully support their daughter’s newest venture.

“My mom said I would get hurt and my dad said I would hurt someone. Finally, they let me play,” De Couvreur explained. “(My mom) is one of my biggest supporters and my dad knows I’m a tough girl, who can take on people.”

At five-foot-eight, De Couvreur has the three essential ingredients to be a successful rugby sevens player — speed, power and size. While playing for Laurier, she was recruited by Sonny Raina, the Eastern Ontario Rugby Union sevens program director. She then moved into the Ontario program, where she was selected to the provincial team in 2017.

That put the Ottawa Irish Rugby Club athlete on the Rugby Canada radar and she was named to the Canadian team for the Commonwealth Youth Games. De Couvreur played all six games as Canada won the silver medal.

“The environment as a whole was incredible; like-minded athletes with drive and perseverance in all sports. It was such a beautiful experience,” De Couvreur said.

She moved to Langford to attend Belmont High School for Grade 12 and be part of the Rugby Canada Academy, where she trained rugby in the morning and attended school in the afternoon.

Canadian coach Sandro Fiorino said De Couvreur took a giant step in her career by moving West.

“She has the physical tools and she has put in the hours to develop her craft,” Fiorino said in an interview. “She definitely puts a check mark beside the speed, power and size, and she works hard. It’s hard to find athletes who can physically dominate.”

De Couvreur, who plays the prop position for Canada and serve either as a power forward or a speed forward, is enthralled by all aspects of the game — seven players against seven players on a full football-sized field, two seven-minute halves, and non-stop action.

“The pace of the game is extremely quick. It’s about recovering from mistakes quickly, precision passing. There’s a lot to analyze, when you’re playing. It requires amazing endurance.”

Canada reached the Summer Youth Olympic Games by winning the North American qualifier last March in Las Vegas. De Couvreur missed the final, after spraining her ankle in the semi-final.

“I’m filled with utter joy,” De Couvreur said before leaving for the Games. “It’s hard work, but it’s not over yet. Team selection was a goal of mine since our coach told us a year ago about the Games. To know I have been officially selected and will represent my country is such an incredible honour.”

De Couvreur shared the experience with her parents, who watched in the stands just as they did at the Commonwealth Youth Games.

“It was so heart-warming to know they were there to watch me in person,” she said of the Commonwealth experience.

CAPITAL SPORTS HUB

HITTING THE CYCLE

Derek Gee of Osgoode repeated as national champion at the Canadian track cycling championships at the National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ont., winning all four of his races — the men’s individual and team pursuits, omnium and Madison with Michael Foley. Gatineau’s Ariane Bonhomme of Team Quebec produced silver-medal efforts in women’s senior team pursuit, omnium and Madison and a bronze in individual pursuit, while world-class, long-track speedskater Vincent De Haitre of Team Ontario and Cumberland was runner-up to Gee in the team pursuit and Madison and second also in the kilo. De Haitre narrowly missed two medals at the recent Pan Am cycling championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, placing fourth in the men’s team pursuit for Canada and the 1,000-metre time trial in a Canadian record one minute, 0.193 seconds. In the men’s master C races at nationals, Ride with Rendall p/b Peloton Contracting’s Mike Nash, who recently improved his Canadian men’s 50-54 age group record in the one-hour race in Aguacalientes to 48.393 kilometres from 46.434 kilometres, won the individual pursuit and was second in the points race. West of Quebec Wheelers’ Brent Atkins was first in the sprint, second in the team sprint with clubmate James Brooks and third in the 500-metre time trial.

DRAGON ROARS

After a decade of coaching the Ottawa Dragon Boat Club, Bruce Raymond has stepped down for a well-deserved break to look at life from other perspectives. And he did it in style. At the 11th International Dragon Boat Federation club crew world championships in Szeged, Hungary, the Ottawa Galley Girls added to their strong reputation by winning four gold medals, three in women’s senior A 200, 500 and 2,000 metres and one in the senior A mixed over 200 metres. Raymond will be replaced next season by Diana Deek and Ryan Stepka. Competing in its first IDBF worlds, the Bytown Dragon Boat Club sent eight standard crews (20 in a boat) and excelled by wining four gold, three silver and five bronze medals in various senior A, B and C races. Cascades raced in the senior A women’s small boat (10 in a boat) class and captured two silver medals.

EASTERN PROMISES

The Carleton University men’s and women’s basketball teams recently took the Maritimes by storm, winning the Stu Aberdeen and Helen Campbell tournaments at Acadia University and the University of New Brunswick, respectively. The Ravens scored more than 100 points in each of their three men’s games, defeating St. Francis Xavier 125-55 (Yasin Joseph, 21 points), Bishop’s 107-66 (TJ Lall, 15 points) and Acadia 127-66 (Eddie Ekiyor, 23 points). The women’s Ravens also went undefeated, downing Waterloo 67-55 (Madison Reid, 15 points), Saint Mary’s 55-52 (Reid, 15 points) and UNB 62-38 (tournament MVP Alyssa Cerino, 16 points). Emma Kiesekamp was named to the all-star team.

ON THE ROAD

The Canadian cycling team finished an amazing fourth at the recent world road championships in Innsbruck, Austria, thanks in large part to Ottawa’s Michael Woods and Gatineau’s Karol-Ann Canuel. On the final day, Woods sprinted to the finish in a group of four to earn the bronze medal, which was Canada’s first men’s senior medal at the road worlds since Steve Bauer’s bronze in 1984. Canuel contributed in three races, helping Boels-Dolmans to a silver medal in the team time trial, and finishing sixth in the road race and eighth in the individual time trial for Canada. Katherine Maine and Carson Miles, both of Ottawa, didn’t finish their respective women’s and junior men’s road races.

COBRAS FALL SHORT

The Cumberland Cobras Elite Academy won two of their first three games at the Toyota national girls’ U15 soccer championships in Laval, but were shut out in their final two matches and finished fourth overall. The Cobras blanked Prince Edward Island 4-0 and lost 2-1 to eventual gold medallist Mountain United of British Columbia in pool play. In the playoffs, Cumberland downed Quebec Laval CS Repentigny 3-2 before falling to Quebec Lakeshore (silver) 5-0, and Calgary South West SC (bronze) 3-0. Florence Belzile and Ameila Thompson led the Cobras with two goals each. The Cobras represented Ontario, after defeating London Youth Whitecaps Academy 2-1 in the Ontario Cup final.

BRIEFLY

Shauna Denis of Stittsville, a former captain of the McGill University women’s hockey team who scored 68 goals and 94 assists as a left winger for the Martlets, was inducted last week into the university’s sports hall of fame as an individual and as part of the 2008 Canadian championship team … Former Royal Ottawa golfer Alison Murdoch tied for third in the super-senior division at the Canadian women’s mid-amateur and senior golf championships in Fonthill, Ont., after rounds of 79-81-83-243, while Gatineau’s Diane Dolan tied for 23rd overall at 88-78-81-247 … Opposite Alexandre Nsakanda and setter Maxime St-Denis, both of Ottawa, as well as assistant coach Adam Simac of Ottawa won bronze medals at the U21 men’s continental volleyball championship in Havana, but failed to qualify for the 2019 world championship. Nsakanda had a game-high 17 points in Canada’s quarterfinal win over Barbados.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.